MMMM #498 You Missed It! Impact Journalism Day! (Huh?)

made. me. dizzy

     Solution based journalism is a hot-button word in new media today, at least if you subscribe to the crusade of a French website manager who sponsors Impact Journalism Day. 
     It happened last Saturday, June 20th, but apparently didn't have enough impact---at least on me---since I knew nothing about it in advance.

USA Today reported on the trend last week in a contributed promotional piece (naturally) by the website owner (naturally) who assures us...

"Some journalists were initially concerned this content might be naïve or simplistic, but are now eager to participate and uphold this philosophy in their day-to-day activities. They are fueled by conviction and also by seeing firsthand that this type of reporting has a measurable impact on the ground."

    Color me....cynical. Just who are these converts he mentions? And notice the campaign is strictly newspapers, which are desperate to find something that will revive their industry. 
     Journalists have been reporting on solutions, proposed and actual, forever. What Mssr. Christian de Boisredon proposes, it seems, is to make the solution the focus of the story.

Instead of a headline reading "Lincoln Assassinated!" maybe "Presidential Protection Proposed"


Or, from WWII:  "U.S. Shipbuilders Build Better Vessels" after Dakar" instead of "Allies Lose Ships and Planes to Vichy French"*

I thought an old French story might appeal to the Mssr. Boisredon.

     Pushing newspapers as agents of change isn't likely to reverse the downward trend of newspapers and of newspaper readers.

*
Allied losses:
2 battleships damaged
2 cruisers damaged
1 armed trawler sunk
6 torpedo planes lost
1 destroyer grounded
2 submarines sunk
1 battleship damaged
Danish freighter MS Tacoma sunk^[1][2]

    Recommended reading/listening: A story on this past week's On The Media on NPR about the potential for all of the knowledge we have accumulated in the world disappearing in an instant. 
     Now there's a solution based story some media haters can appreciate!

[UPDATE: Gannett restructures itself, leaving its print operations on their own, including The Montgomery Advertiser:

"...the McLean, Virginia-based company announced last August its plans to split its operations in an effort to shield its broadcasting and digital businesses from the print advertising decline.]

[The Monday Morning Media Memo is a regular feature of www.TimLennox.com]